Body ideals' influence on health behaviour

aka what I found out with the 3-week assignment :) :

According to Pierre Bordieu, body is something more than just our physical body. It is a bearer of status and symbolic value, it is our "physical capital". The "more valuable" the physical capital of a person, the easier it is to convert it to other types of capital like cultural or social capital.

Therefore can body ideals be seen as what is recognized as the highest form of physical capital in our society.

Bordieu's economic way of thinking and seeing every social act directed to maximizing economic and symbolic profit fits well with the modern Western society, which could be said to be directed towards the same things.

However, Bordieu's work has much to do with French class-based society. As social classes are not as important in contemporary Western society, Richard Jenkin's notion on differences between "groups" and "categories" could be more suitable. That basically states that in order to identify ourselves we have to say something about the others. We say who we are trough who we are not. Therefore we categorize others. However, similarity to other people is at least as important. Therefore - a difference between groups and categories. Memebers of groups are aware of their membership and who and what the group is. Categorization, however, is only dependent on the categorizer and often more relevant to him than the one who is being categorized.
Group membership in itself can have a great influence on individual's behaviour and enough to discriminate against other groups.

The many "stakeholders" of an individuals body in our society, keep on making associations between leanness (thin women, strong men), beauty, good personality, high moral and ethical value and good citicens.
And one's social worth is continuoslly evaluated based on one's ability to resist excess. In times of plenty, smaller bodies are idealised, when food is scarce, however, a larger body is idealised.

Therefore, the most valuable physical capital in modern Western Society is a lean body.

In order to be categorized as, or seen as a member of the "healthy"-pretty-good-responsible people, AND maximize the chances of earning all kinds of profits in one's life, one could feel pressured to conform to body ideals. And as the theory sais, discriminate against the ones who are not.

However, an appearance releated goal, especially, when the goal is unhealthily skinny or muscular, (we see that types of bodies in commercials and magazines, so it is possible to have a body like that, right?), can make the outcome more important than our health. Diet and exercise might turn into a simple means to reach the goal appearance.
Eating disorders, exercise dependence, yo-yo dieting, stigmatization of obesity - they are all unhealthy conditions with serious outcomes, and they all have been associated with internalization of the pressure to be thin/muscular etc.
However, by conforming to those ideals, we reproduce them in the society: by buying beauty/diet products for example, we increase their demand on the market; by behaving in a way to reach the goal, we make that behaviour more present. Therefor we increase the pressure to conform with the same ideal for other people in the society and a reciprocal circle forms.

Therefore, both public health campaigns and individual lifestyle councelling should be used in health promotion.
Health professionals should also avoid making decisions about one's health based on his appearnace, promote a healthy body and focus on it's functions and performance, and turn more attention to how we form different health-advises and recommendations, not to always associate fat with bad health and leanness with good. Instead, we could focus on decreasing body fat %, increasing muscle mass (up to a limit), VO2 max, percieved quality of life, decreased stress etc.
And remember that health, just like beauty, comes in all shapes and sizes. :)

.
That was pretty much that. And I really enjoyed writing it :).
k. 

Last week last efforts

(and birthday was so much fun :))


It's been two weeks. I am reading texts like that:

Thus the capital, in the sense of the means of appropriating the product of accumulated labor in the objectified state which is held by a given agent, depends for its real efficacy on the form of the distribution of the means of appropriating the accumulated and objectively available resources; and the relationship of appropriation between an agent and the resources objectively available, and hence the profits they produce, is mediated by the relationship of (objective and/or subjective) competition between himself and the other possessors of capital competing for the same goods, in which scarcity – and through it social value – is generated. The structure of the field, i.e., the unequal distribution of capital, is the source of the specific effects of capital, i.e., the appropriation of profits and the power to impose the laws of functioning of the field most favorable to capital and its reproduction. (Bordieu 1986)

and I dont have much more to say :/

at least it seems, it is going good.

Part 2

Anyway. I am going to stick with “planning” my eating and training. But just so that I’d have time for it all. And of course the money and the bills and my future, but just as much as necessary. So they’d be okay, so that I’d have time to be me and not worry about them :)

I am also going to stick with the time-schedule for the assignment as a guidance, and of course I can write here, what I end up concluding about body ideals and their influence on health behavior, but I can get it done without daily letting the world know, how am I doing with it. That was a stupid idea, sorry.

I did get too crazy with all this. For a while already, struggling between who I felt like and who I thought I somewhy have to be, between “being a health professional” and “being me”, thinking and feeling and finding no balance, ending up eating-training-doing too much or too little (because that’s what we learned in school might happen to people, and then I Thought, it is happening to me, so I Thought I might do it and so i did), looking like neither and +/- 5 kg every second week. Okay, exaggerating again, but to make my point again.
Yeah. I don’t know how writing all this here is going to affect me as a health professional. Or even if it should be here. But of course it should, because the whole story is about me becoming one, and you better know what you preach, right? ;)

So I will stick with planning, but just as some kind of structure. I know I am nerdish and I like to learn and discover and discuss, so of course I write as good of a paper as I can. And I know that I can’t sit down all day, so of course I’ll exercise, but when I feel like doing it and it’s a suitable moment, not when it is time to do it. And I am a human, so obviously I will eat, and eat again when I am hungry again. And when I don’t over or undereat, I will get hungry again after every 2 or 3 hours and eat again, so I don’t have to look at the clock and be like “oh, it’s meal-time”. Daah.

I am Kirsi and I am a health professional. Or at least eager to become one :P

Have fun, be cool and do what you wanna do :).

..And trust yourself enough to know that you wanna do the right things :). And if you go wrong, learn from it and go on :)

See you and happy spring  :P

Time of great self-discovery (AKA What is wrong with me)

This post is going to completely make this blog a blog about me and not a blog about health. But I guess it actually has been that for a long time already.
I don’t even know if I should post it here, but I feel that I want to. So here we go :P

I can’t believe  that I thought I have to think about where should I spend my summer, if I have the  whole summer off. As in - I have 4 moths to do 3 months of internship, but I already found one internship place in Estonia, and was thinking about if I want to do it for the whole summer, if I take another one after that one, which could be done online, would I wanna come back to Denmark to do it; should I find another one somewhere abroad etcetc. I really can’t believe that I ever thought about it. Of course I want to be in Estonia. Daaaah!

So..I figured out what my problem is. :D
I think I took growing up too seriously. I mean – I’ve always more like felt what I feel and who I am, not thought about it.
But then I moved to Denmark, started living far from friends, family, and everything familiar, and went to university to study what? :D – planning.
Of course living on your own requires some planning - going to school and work, training, language school, time, and being  financially independent- everything takes planning…And then I started studying nutrition and health – which was a lot at least on the first year, about making dietary and training plans. So of course I feel quite confused and controversial, when I’ve never been much of a planner and more just went with what feels right. Afterall – I have to trust myself enough to know that what I feel is right, is right. Right?
And then I started studying how to think. I had already became (or already becoming) a great planner – time, training, money-spending-earning plans. I even planned what I eat and when – you know, to know when to buy and make food, but also so it’d be nutritionally balanced and all (what is of course a good thing , but..) and my trainings, just to keep up with it all. And having to think and plan so much, friends became like one of “okay where should I fit that into my plan” and oh that’s going to take money and study-time off. Okay, a bit exaggerated, but just to make my point.
And all my friends back home? I didn’t think about them much. Or of course I did, but..I missed them so much and felt so strange without them, that I had put all those feelings aside. To Think about it: that wasn’t a time to be missing friends or home, I had left home, and now it was a time to “grow up”, “start my own life” and you know..develop and change. So I thought that was just the new me. (or maybe I thought who I ought to be..:D). Anyway, it does make perfect sense that then from time to time, I felt so confused. But then again, I thought that comes with “the grown-up life”. And was wondering, how can everyone put up with that..
But yeah, I was already trying to be a great planner, and then I started learning how to think. Or analyze. At school, I mean. Suddenly there was Anthropology, Psychology, Sociology, Communication, Epistemology, Philosophy of Science, Ethics etcetcetc. So on top of thinking a lot and planning my whole life, I now started to analyze WHY am I doing WHAT I, and Why it all is as it is.
And as soon as we start to measure something, we change it, right? So as soon as I started thinking I was having difficulties with all that “growing up” (:D), I suddenly felt I do have difficulties with it. Uuuuuh.
But actually I had just forgotten to feel. I had put my missing friends and family, my likes and dislike-s, the things that are not practical but always make me happy, aside (Ice cream, for example :P – I love it, but it didn’t fit the plan; and reading novels (L)) and I think I completely (!) forgot, what it was I was doing and what for. I was going to school, because it intersted me. I am eating, because I want to and like to, I am running, because I like to move and how it feels, and I learned Danish to know how to speak it, because I thought that would be so cool (and it is ). But I forgot all that. Because I was practical, you know. And they were just the things I ought to manage well and then I become a good, successful, what I’m ought to be person. And missing someone and being sad or doing bad at something would just be weak and pointless and irrelevant (“for pussys,” I probably thought tho :D. Sorry ) (Yeah yeah, I even wrote a post here, inspired by my anthropology class text, about how it is awful how much attention we turn to “loosers”.I still agree to some point though )

Actually I think I just forgot to feel.
 And that’s how I reached the point where I had to think about, where do I want to spend my summer, if I can spend it anywhere.
:D

Of course I want to be in Estonia. With my family and friends and a language I speak very well and a culture I know and understand and feel, and a weather that makes sense for me and…ooh . I love Estonia. And of course I don’t have to do a 1-moth internship there and then come back to Denmark during the online internship to “be independent and “grow up””. Whooh, it is so crazy how far from wise that approach to it all took me. As if it worked vice versa.

But I am glad I got it all figured out now. Or actually - felt out. It came when I stopped thinking.
I guess (guess, not think or “suggest” ) I just have to remember what I am and what it is I am doing. It is my life and I believe it’s better spent living it, than analyzing what’s wrong with it.
I am Kirsi and I am not good at thinking.
Never have been.

I just know it when I feel it ;).

Day 2 and 3

I'd call them sunshine :)

I forgot to wtrite yesterday. Came home from work at 22:00 and then started Skyping about a possible internship place (was also quite cool :P), and then after doing that, reading some text and having a shower, when I finally remembered, I should write a post, I was already in bed and just couldn't be bothered.

But anyway - I am doing way better with the assignment. I still haven't written basically anything (ups), but I figured out what my research question is, what it means, and how am I going to answer to it. And I have also found good texts for references - gonna go with sociology classics - Bordieu, Focault and Jenkins, so should be safe.
And google :D. but that just to demonstrate "how world is" and what do you see, when you google these "ideal body" or "beautiful body". So I hope noone is going to be upset about that reference either.

training is cool - love my new running shoes and the sunny weather
and eating is good too :D. I have started to have really big breakfasts. Usually I dont do it because I have to bike to school right after and that's 13km uphill, so I really don't feel like eating a lot before. But now that I'm at home, I eat a lot of porridge and a piece of fruit and some yoghurt. It's crazy - i feel how I can focus better and am like more "awake". And I dont have to eat again after like 1h, as I usually do :/.

So me all good for now.

Weekend is going to be filled with working, so I dont know how much time I have to write the assignment, but we'll see.

Right now, I am going to sleeeeeeep :)

Because second conclusion (not of the assignment, but of life):
better wellrested and stupid than smart and tired.

I promise :)

Good weekend!

Day 1

I know if I count the exam days starting from today, then it is not going to be 3-weeks at all, but 16 days instead, but today was the actual starting day, so I'll do it like that, and here we go my first update:

If I'd have to call Day 1 something, I would call it confusion.

It just went wrong. To start with, I sat down and discovered that my computer has stopped working. I am kitty-sitting in an appartment in central Aarhus and apparently the cats (or one of the two, I am pretty sure, I know which one it was), had completely destroyed my charger. So I had to bike all the way home and back, to get my other computer. At that moment, I was really thankful for getting my things stolen last autumn, so I had that other computer at home at all, and that I started using Dropbox after that. Otherwise it could have been pretty bad.
Anyway, I got back with it and started the confusing assignment.
:/
I am still confused, so I am not going to start explaining thoroughly why I got confused, but basically, I have troubles with my research question, what I mean with it, and what the outline that I got approved by my supervisor, would actually include. It seems now that they are all different things and I am not sure how to make it better.
And we only have 1 supervision left and that's pretty much just before handing the paper in, so I can't ask my supervisor if it's ok to change something, and just have to do it. I hope my nerdish brain will help me out, though.
But my whole confusion started because it seems to me, that skinny-ideal is out of fashion and old. And fit really is the new skinny. :). Other than causing problems in my paper, I like it a lot :).
Anyway, I write more about the paper when I know what's it gonna be :)

Training was the other thing I was supposed to write about in these daily-updates. I woke up at 6am without an alarm clock to go running. So that part of life is fine :). Of course it was because of my new running shoes..and they're soo good :).

And eating was as it's supposed to be too. I'm probably not going to write exactly what I ate here every day - that could be a waste of exam-time, not keeping me on track. But I promise I'll be honest about it all the time :)

And I didn't plan to write about sleeping, but one of the rules for the assignment-writing time is, that I have to sleep at least from 23:00 - ca 07:00 and not longer than 09:00. So now I am going to go to bed and hope that I'll wake up smart and completely sure about what I am going to do with the exam, instead of staying awake and trying to figure it out right now (but my nerdish brain is really having a hard time with that decision)

So the first conclusion of this assignment:
Skinny ideal is not in anymore.

Keep myself on track (and the Paleo diet)

Heyhey!

Finally it is sunny outside and seems that the last snow is melting too, soon it's going to be nice and warm. and my birthday :).

Paskeferie last week went quite fast -  I spent a lot of time working, prepared for my 3-week assignment and from Thursday, had a long weekend. My cousin from Estonia came to visit me and so we had a nice time shopping, chilling and sightseeing here in Aarhus. Was so much fun :).

But now it is time to turn more attention to my 3-week assignment. It is supposed to be like a miniature Bachelor thiesis and we have 3 weeks (1-19th April) to do it.
A while ago, when I was going trough this blog to find inspiration for topic, I also noticed how it always seems to be that I am writing about some kind of assignment and exam, and then afterwards, just suddenly, about "getting back to shape" :D. Obviously, there is an (unmentioned?) connection.

To avoid turning into a unhealthy nerd this time, I have made a plan. I mean like a real plan for every day of these three weeks (and even further), where I wrote down how far should I be with my assignment, what other things I have to do that day (like go to work or grocery shopping (:D), Skype meetings etc), my training plans and even what I eat. The food plan is not very strict or precise, more just like a "buy these things now then eat that that that and that, then they'll be used before they go off and then buy that and that", but in all other ways the plan is made to be followed.
And to keep myself on track, I will, on most days, write down here
-what have I written to the assignment
-about training
-about eating
-about general wellbeing (:D)

So that's what I'll do.


Quite irrelevant for this post here, but when I hadn't yet decided for another theme for my assignment, I was thinking to write something about why popular diets seem to attract more people (and work better?) than the official health guidlines. And (without any research or back-up theories though), I think I've reached my conclusion.
It is not that all people are seriously believing that "this magic diet here will help you lose 8kg in 3 weeks" (or whatever), it is just the "identity" you get. Suddenly you are "on that diet" or following that diet, you have concrete and straight forward rules about what you can and can't eat and what you should and shouldn't be doing. You kind of have already made a decision about following the diet for some amount of time. And don't, therefore, have to decide again before every single mealtime or health activity. And then it all seems to be working. As long as you follow the rules. The thing is, just, that usually the rules are so strange and limiting, that it is very hard to follow them, and then people "get off the diets" and gain weight. However, it's quite clever - the memory of the whole experience will probably sound somethink like 'I lost 5kg on that diet, but then I failed, stopped the diet and gained the weight back", so the diet will still seem successful in itself, it was just the person who didn't follow it, that gained weight. So maybe another person would still be successful on it. And that's how all fad diets manage to keep on excisting.

Following official, scientific health information can be more complicated. One day some health scientist says that something is very healthy and on the next day someone else claims it might kill you or cause cancer. The information is quite confusing and often times even controversial. Therefore, a person should make some kind of decisions all the time - Do I believe that? Do I stay to what I thought it was? Do I start avoiding that thing?
And making these kind of decisions without actually having enough knowledge to make these decisions, is of course very difficult.

That's how I started thinking about the Paleo diet, and how it's just genius!
Basically, (who doesn't know yet), Paleo diet, aka the stone-age diet promotes living like people in the stone age: eating a lot of fruits, vegetables, berries, meat, fish etc, but no dairy, wholegrain or highly processed foods. (http://thepaleodiet.com/)

You see what I mean? Or not yet?
Basically, they have made up a diet. Have a catching "theory" and a matching name for that diet, to make it sound appealing (remember "The South Beach Diet", for example? :) - just a catching name, I'm not pointing at any other similarities) And to make more people follow it, they also talk about weight loss.

But the actual diet information and how one is supposed to eat on the diet, is taken from scientific sources. I claim, Paleo diet is a real healthy diet, that has just (in order to have everything a fad diet has to have?) taken a fancy name, and came up with some unneccessary rules:
How do you make someone who is eating healthy, to loose weight quite fast? - You make her consume less calories.
How do you make her consume less calories? - You exlude the most calorie dense foods and the foods highest in saturated fat.
Therefore: exlude breads, pasta, rice, potatoes and dairy products.

Of course people start losing weight when they eat less than they are used to. And think about it - how many times a day you eat a slice of bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, drink milk, put cheese on your food? On  Paleo diet you exclude all these, but other than that,  have quite a normal healthy diet. So without knowing, or knowing, but just doing it for other reasons (to "live like a stone man", rather than "to lose weight"), people consume a lot less calories.

So from my point of view:
Paleo diet is just like a regular normal healthy diet, and that is why it works. (-people feel better and loose weight.)
But in a way, it is just another (low-carb) fad diet. It has its name, its theory and its reasoning. It has a set of concrete straight forward rules, it gives one the "identity" of being on Paleo diet, people know that these are the rules they have to follow, so they won't get confused, and then the diet works. And as it is quite nutritionally balanced, people  manage to stay on it for a long time.
However, excluding wholegrain and dairy is completely unneccessary from a scientific point of view, and only necessary for the diet "identity" and to make weight loss more likely.
And this is why  I say it is genius.

...I wonder, if I'd name the normal healthy diet something cool, and then make one book to describe the basics of healthy eating, (and then maybe 1 cookbook with normal healthy foods and maybe 1 desert book or baking book, and then maybe some key holders or pens or notebooks or whatever things to "get for free when you order the book!") would I then became really rich and people really healthy? :P
seems so


But enough is enough. These were my thoughts about the Paleo diet.
Thoughts about "How can body ideals influence people's health beahviour in modern Western Society?" will be showing up in this blog during the next 3 weeks together with my eating-training plans. Meanwhile, I will just brag with my little early birthday present to myself :) :

xoxo

veery happy,

k